Muharram’s Poignant Plea for Truth, Justice

Mar 2, 2004, 12.00am IST
Fayyaz S Pathan.

The moon of Muharram has been sighted. This is the beginning of the New Year of Muslims according to the tenements of Islam and the Shariat. This New Year reminds us of the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain, the grandson of our Beloved Prophet.


According to Islamic history, there was a noted chieftain in the holy city of Mecca, Abde Munaf. Two twins were born to him, but they were Siamese twins with their backs joined by birth. The chieftain approached the wise men of the city for advice, and they said, “Now they are children, but when they grow up they will face problems.”

Munaf separated his children with his sword. One boy was named Hashim and the other Ummaiya. When they were separated, another chieftain watching the children crying bitterly, said, “God forbid! A sword has been used to separate the two brothers. God bless! It shouldn’t so happen that their family tree should keep fighting with swords.” Sadly, the last wish did not bear fruit. The two brothers quarrelled over marrying a girl both liked. While their swords flashed, the girl married someone else. Their quarrel ended but their enmity did not disappear. They, too, married and each had a son. Hashim named his son Abdul Mutalib and Ummaiya named his son Herb (war).

Abdul Mutalib and Ummaiya fought each other for years over a camel both wanted to buy. They went on to marry and had a son each. Abdul Mutalib named his son Abu Talib and Herb named his child Abu Sufiyaan. These two grew up to quarrel for years over a piece of land and a few date palm trees. They, too, married to have a son each. Abu Talib named his son Hazrat Ali, and Abu Sufiyaan’s son was Amir Mahaviya. These two clashed as well, and upon marriage were blessed with a son each. Hazrat Ali’s son was Hazrat-e-Imam Hussain and Amir Mahaviya son was Yazeed.

Hazrat Imam Hussain led a simple and noble life. He imbibed the teachings and way of life of the beloved Prophet Mohammed and his companions. But Yazeed was vicious by nature — greedy, power-hungry, wicked, hypocritical and cruel. He possessed all the dire qualities that force humanity to weep for justice. Any voice or a mere whisper against Yazeed would result in a death sentence. Yazeed only sought to crown himself as ruler by hook or by crook.

Tragically, he brought about the death of the grandson of the beloved Prophet Mohammed and other companions of the Holy Prophet who attained martyrdom with Hazrat Imam Hussain. Yazeed was a bane on Islam and a blot on Muslims. The holy shrine of Karbala is a memory to Hazrat Imam Hussain’s martyrdom and Yazeed’s treachery. The martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain teaches us truth and fearlessness in the pursuit of justice.

In this New Year there are lessons to be learnt about justice. It is also important to guard against lust for power. A Muslim is duty-bound to learn lessons from the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain. The message of Muharram is of great contemporary relevance in a society riven by greed, dishonesty, hunger for power and hate. Muharram is a lament against strife and pettiness; surely its relevance cannot be lost in a world that remains as strife-torn and narrow as the dark days that preceded the arrival of the Holy Prophet. Men in all walks of life fall prey to the pursuit of power, greed and money.

The restraint, wisdom and courage embodied in the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain should not be lost on a materialistic society such as ours. We may not know what is joy from the depths of our soul, if we lack the honesty and character to grieve the loss of all that is true and worthy in existence.

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Beware the Minefield That is the Mind

Mar 1, 2004, 12.00am IST


Selfless action is the outward expression of selfless love. When the heart is filled with love, it expresses itself in the form of unselfish action. One is a deep inner feeling and the other its outward manifestation.


Without deep, unconditional love, selfless actions cannot be performed. In the initial stages of our awakening, the actions we perform in the name of selflessness are not selfless, because the love we feel for ourselves is present in everything we do and say.

In fact, at the beginning of our journey, our self-love becomes the driving force for each of our actions, even if we choose to call them selfless.

Love for the ego, or oneself, is the predominant feeling in every human being. Unless this feeling withers away, real selflessness will not emerge.


Alertness is necessary to prevent the ego from interfering. It is easier to be in love with the ego than feel truly inspired by the ideal of selflessness.

Generally, the selflessness we speak of is actually selfish, because everything stems from the ego. It is the ego, and not our inner Self, that is the source of our so-called love and our actions.


Nothing can be selfless unless it springs directly from the heart, from our true Self. That is why great saints and sages have said you should know your own Self before you can love and serve others selflessly.

There is a story of an old man planting mango trees. When his neighbour saw what he was doing, he said, "Do you think you will live long enough to taste the mangoes from those trees?"

"No, I doubt it," replied the old man. "Then why are you wasting your time?" asked the neighbour. The old man smiled and said, "All my life I have enjoyed eating mangoes from trees planted by others. This is my way of expressing my gratitude to the people who planted those trees."

Selflessness can be the driving force in all your actions. Learn to be thankful to everyone, to all of creation, even to your enemy, and to those who insult you and get angry with you, because they help you grow.


They are mirrors, images of your own mind. If you know how to read and interpret the images properly, you can get rid of your mind and its weaknesses.


If you choose love and selflessness as your goal, you need to be watchful. Watch your mind constantly, because the mind won't let you do anything selflessly.

The mind doesn't want you to be selfless — its only aim is to drive you down the path of selfishness, because the mind is selfish. As long as you dwell in the mind you can only be selfish. You have to be free of the mind to be selfless.

Selfishness comes natu- rally to human beings. While all of nature — birds and animals, mountains, rivers and trees, the sun, moon and stars — stands as a testimony to selfless service, man alone acts out of utter selfishness and greed.


He dwells in his ego, turning life into a business venture and robbing it of all sanctity.

Children, filled with selflessness, will uplift us. By helping others we are, in fact, helping ourselves. On the other hand, we harm ourselves by being selfish.

Learn to bless everyone; don't ever curse anyone, because a human being is not just a bundle of flesh and blood. There is a cons-ciousness at work within everyone.

That consciousness is not a separate, isolated entity; it is part of the whole, a Supreme Unity. Whatever we do is reflected in the Whole, in the one universal mind, and it returns with the same intensity.

Whenever you perform a good or bad action, it is reflected in the Universal Consciousness. Therefore, learn to be selfless and proffer blessings on one and all.

Mata Amritanandamayi

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In search of happiness

Apr 16, 2010, 12.00am IST
ANUP TANEJA.

All the misery we experience can be attributed to our failure to understand that true happiness can be attained only when one is able to harmonise with the best thing in him, with the Supreme Divinity, and not with the brute. Happiness constantly eludes one who is dominated by base instincts and in the process suppressing the inner voice of conscience.


“ We are all conscious that there is another inside of us; that there accompanies us through life a divine, silent messenger---that higher, better self which speaks from the depths of our nature and which gives its consent, its ‘Amen’, to every right action and condemns every wrong one,” wrote Marden. Men and women in all times have tried to attain happiness by ignoring their conscience that keeps reviewing all their good and bad actions on a constant basis. Therefore all efforts to buy its approval; to silence its voice in nervous excitement; to drown it in pleasure, with intoxicating substances are bound to go in vain.


The Supreme Being created us along the lines of truth and justice; therefore in order to gain true happiness it is imperative that we do not violate the laws that constitute the very core of our existence. So long as we continue to indulge in negative practices, for example, to earn money through unlawful means -- by accepting bribe or exploiting others---so long as our aspiration is to amass wealth by any possible means, we can never attain to true happiness, simply because we have deviated from the path of righteousness.


The thought that we can indulge in corrupt practices and then beg the Lord’s forgiveness through prayer or by bathing in a holy river; the thought that we can do wrong and be forgiven without atoning for wrong actions, has done more harm than good. He who has a clear conscience, leads a clean life, and is able to obliterate the negative traits of selfishness, jealousy, envy, and hatred from the mind.


We tend to make happiness too complicated an affair. Most people are governed by the understanding that happiness can be derived by doing something on a grand scale; from making a big fortune; and from ostentatious display of wealth with the purpose of showing off one’s affluence and high status in society. But happiness can be attained from the simplest and most unpretentious things. Pleasure can never be forced; it must come in a natural way, from uncomplicated living.


One often hears the statement: “He has the money, but cannot enjoy it.”


Helping colleagues and friends without expecting anything in return; acts of kindness towards animals; conducting oneself with utmost humility; performance of one’s duties with utmost sincerity; protecting the gifts bestowed upon us by bountiful nature; living in a spirit of togetherness with fellow beings---all these are simple things, yet they are what constitute true happiness. And this is what leads us to bliss that lies within reach if only we knew how to access it.

(The writer is an editor with the Indian Council of Historical Research.)

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There’s no need to be so anxious

Apr 16, 2010, 12.00am IST
JAYA ROW.


There are two kinds of renunciation, as explained by Krishna: sannyasa renunciation and tyaga renunciation. The first, sannyasa, is giving up desire-driven actions while the second, tyaga, is giving up the fruits of action. However, neither of the two implies giving up action.


Action continues, giving up only the two things that come in the way of excellence – desire from the past and anxiety for the fruit.

Krishna adds that some say all action should be renounced as flawed, while others maintain that acts of sacrifice, charity and penance must never be abandoned. Most are laden with desire. They need to perform acts of sacrifice, charity and penance for self-purification. The rare one who is on the verge of realisation needs to let go of even the last thought to become enlightened.

There are three kinds of tyaga: sattvika, rajasika and tamasika. Abandoning obligatory action out of delusion is tamasika, not tyaga. False or rajasika tyaga is giving up action that is troublesome, fearing physical discomfort. True or sattvika tyaga is performance of obligatory action because it ought to be done, giving up attachment and fruit.


The Gita’s chapter 18 then analyses five distinct aspects of action: the body, the actor, the various instruments – mind, intellect, ego, sense organs and external instruments – their respective functions and the fifth, the divine. The divine Self remains inactive but enlivens all other entities and enables them to function. If you identify with atman and not the individuality, action takes on a divine dimension. Work becomes worship. Such action does not bind you, not even the act of killing.

The next portion provides insight into our personality. The qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas impact on each aspect of our persona - knowledge, action, actor, intellect, consistency and happiness. By understanding the manifestation of the gunas in each of the different entities, we can identify the weak spots and deal with them. Thus the whole personality gets a lift.

Based on this inner composition, all humans were categorised into four varnas or castes, based on one’s proportion of sattva, rajas and tamas, not on heredity. Each caste was then given a vocation best suited for their temperament. The purpose was to facilitate the spiritual development of all because a mismatch of inner composition with external work can be highly frustrating and prevent progress.


Krishna encapsulates the entire spiritual path in verses 46 to 57 starting with the three practices of karma yoga, bhakti yoga and jnana yoga and ending with meditation. If you shift your focus to atman you will overcome all obstacles. If you ignore Divinity and get lost in the material realms you will perish.

Having said that, Krishna leaves us to do as we wish. The Gita is not a doctrine of adesa or commandments that must be accepted without question. It is upadesa, advice based on a logical, scientific exposition on the human personality. Reflect on these principles, experiment with them and draw your own conclusions just as you would with physics or chemistry. Then you will experience truths laid down in the Gita and find liberation while living in the world. You will live like a king, think like a sannyasi, for you would command resources but not depend on them.


All other editions:
http://www.vedantavision.com/

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Is god playing games?

Apr 14, 2010, 12.00am IST
TNN.


How often have we heard someone ask: “Why is God playing cruel games with us?” It is perhaps a question that comes to mind when one fails to find a satisfactory explanation of the inexplicable. But the question itself is not a satisfactory approach to understanding.

We can give explanations, but explanations need not be answers.

What is life and what is death? You are looking at death as the opposite of life. So, our encounter with death is conditioned by our definition of death as being opposed to life. Look at it another way: Death is one more expression of life. Life scientists declare that death is the most critical defining feature of life. All and only living things die. When you die, you are making the ultimate undeniable assertion that you have been alive. In fact, death is even a precondition to life. The Holy Bible says, “Unless a seed falls into earth and dies, it cannot produce any grains”. That is, a seed has to cease to be itself in order to be a source of life to several others like it.

The most comfortable place for you is to be is in your mother’s womb. After birth, many times you search for that same comfort. That is why in Hindu temples, the sanctum sanctorum is called garbhagudi – representing a mother’s womb. At the time of delivery, the body of the mother pushes the child out. When it is pushed out, every child goes through what is called birth trauma, experiencing a form of death. Tagore asks, “Is it death or is it life?” What do we experience? Birth, exit from the womb where life originated and was sustained for about nine months and into the world outside – is a form of death that leads to life although in different environments. Similarly, death – exit from the world – could be a door to some other form of life or life at yet another plane.

Don’t we cast off worn-out clothes in order to wear new ones? Why get so attached to physical phenomena? During the great dotcom bust of the post-millennium years, a lot of people went through depression all over the world, but especially so in California, the hub of all that dotcom activity. Let us think of what really happened. Nothing more than the fact that what had been hyped sky-high was brought down to earth. The same thing had happened in Bangalore real estate. It happens cyclically in stock markets across the globe. You build the bubble, and, when the bubble breaks, you feel depressed. Those who know that the rise is artificial make all the profit while gullible believers in the longevity of the bubble lose everything.

The value we attach to objects of speculation like stocks, shares, land, and commodities is purely psychological; they are illusory or insubstantial. Likewise, all sorrows are chiefly created by the mind. You invest 10 million rupees on a piece of land expecting to make a profit of 10 million, but the profit is only notional in the sense that it is based on your expectation that the value of your purchase will double within the time frame of your expectation. If your expectations are defeated, you start suffering. It’s all in your mind, isn’t it?


Therefore the trauma that you feel at events like accident or death is also mainly psychological, and so death is something you can overcome through spiritual discipline.

Excerpt from: “Enhancing Life: The Art of Inner Awakening. www.prasannatrust.org
(Discourse: Swami Sukhabodhananda)

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Story of Kaliya the snake

Apr 13, 2010, 12.00am IST
TNN.


Krishna overcomes Kaliya the dreaded, multi-hooded snake in the River Yamuna and begins to dance on its several hoods. When the heels of Krishna strike the hoods, some break off and then get replaced by new ones. All the while Krishna keeps playing his sweet flute.

Snake Kaliya with its numerous hoods symbolises the numerous desires we have. When one desire gets fulfilled, another arises, like the new hoods of Kaliya. The hoods keep breaking and forming, but Krishna is unperturbed. He keeps playing His flute, denoting the power of discrimination, of wisdom, of the focus on the bliss of Self. The wife of Kaliya prays to Krishna, that is, her prayer in which she desires her husband to come back whole leads to re-creation of the hoods.


Kaliya questions Krishna: “O Lord! You are the Creator. You have created venomous snakes like me; you have also created gods who drink nectar. What is my fault in this? I am poisonous because nature has made me so.” The Srimad Bhagvatam says that on hearing this, Krishna falls silent.


Krishna accepted Kaliya’s words of discrimination. Krishna is the true embodiment of wisdom. He replies: “Alright, I shall not kill you, but please leave this place. You are causing distress to many. My nature is to shower bliss and your acts are an obstruction to that.” Krishna spares Kaliya’s life. He does not kill him or snatch his venom from him, but asks him to go to another place, where perhaps he would learn to use venom only when absolutely necessary, in self-defence.


In the same way, I do not ask you to eliminate desire, anger, greed and delusion that trouble you, but to change their course. You desire to obtain something or the other. Let this yearning be turned to attain God, to obtain inner peace, to yearn for silence and solitude or if you wish to enter public life, yearn for the welfare of the people. The orientation of your yearning, when changed, can lead you to God. The yearning for kama will get sublimated to attainment of Rama. In this manner, your wisdom will be put to good use. The same applies for anger. For how long will you try to suppress it? Just re-channelise it in a different direction. If greed overpowers you, then channelise it towards greed for doing more japa, more meditation, more acts of benevolence and acquiring more divine knowledge. The same goes for other attachments and passions. Sant Tulsidas has said: “Develop attachment towards the Lord, and equanimity towards the world.”

“O Lord, I have experienced these worldly pleasures, now have mercy...” –

Such a prayer shows your discrimination. However great may be the amount of praise, pleasures and comforts you attain – how long will they last and what will remain in the end? Therefore, yearn for real joy, the bliss of Self, the Atman.


Your real Self, the Atman, is bliss personified. If there is sorrow, worry or fear, it is due to lack of discrimination. Keep awakening your power of discrimination. As you grow in discrimination, you will also grow in dispassion and gain the shat-sampatti, the six spiritual wealth of shama or mind control, dama or sense control, titiksha or forbearance, samadhan or freedom from doubt, shraddha or faith and Ishwar-pranidhan or concentration of mind on God.

Then the yearning for moksha or liberation will automatically arise. Moksha means liberation from all sorrows forever and attainment of Supreme Bliss.

www.ashram.org

(Satsang: Asaram Bapu)

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A tree as old as the hills

Apr 20, 2010, 12.00am IST
SANJAY DEV.

I am God's creation; He who created the cosmos also created me. I am one of the elements of the natural world, and so am perhaps as old as the hills, existing say, for more than 210 million years now, going by the estimates of cosmogonists.

Genesis makes mention of me as the Tree of Knowledge planted by God along with the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, embodying knowledge of good and evil. The one whose fruit was forbidden to eat and which both Adam and Eve ended up eating, succumbing to temptation. And for which transgression they were banished from the Garden of Eden, to toil and sweat for survival.


I am also the Bo Tree, the tree under whose shade Gautama attained enlightenment and became known as the Buddha. I am produced by spore or seed and thus self-perpetuate, as per phytogenesis. That's about my age, origin and evolution. I have witnessed vicissitudes of times; rise and fall of civilisations. I have survived the Apocalypse that flattened entire Creation and reduced me to a fossil or several fossils - proof of my once-being-there.


Years of survival and the struggle to live, inherent in all living beings, have conditioned me to stand the ground and acclimatise to surroundings, hostile or friendly, no matter! I first make sure that I stand on my own, and then prepare the ground for my near and dear ones. I not only create a habitat for myself but do so for others, too, who flock to my arborous arms. As a tree, one must be pliable when young. You can't shape me into a mould once I am grown up and my limbs get ossified.

I understand the language of inter-dependence. And hence have a pact with those who tend to me. I fill their lungs with life-giving oxygen and take in the discarded carbon dioxide to fill mine and nourish myself. To reward others for my upkeep, I give them wood, fruits, rubber, nectar, gum, food and medicinal substances. This constitutes the material exchange. Besides, I also give protection from sun and rain; help stabilise the ground they make their homes on; offer them green cover to counter pollution and rarify the air they inhale.

I can't be faulted because I keep teaching lessons -- audible enough when it blows; visible enough when it blows and pours. I keep beckoning my arm-like branches and fluttering my wing-like leaves. What can I do if the woods and its inhabitants collectively and separately miss my lessons of peaceful coexistence, communion with nature, symbiotic relationship, self-reliance, coalescence, assimilation and absorption, virtues of charity and giving, growing closely yet apart, vertical growth rooted in horizontal development, unobtrusive communication, standing tall, yet bending with one's own weight without throwing it around -- all this and much more. But alas, it seems they miss the woods for the trees!


I have always known my place in the vast cosmos and respect its limits in the context of my existence or not. Unfortunately, those who study the vastness of the cosmos believe in invading others' space. Why don’t they just let me ne? Ought you to judge a tree by its bark? The tree is known by its fruit, sometimes. How long will I take kindly to it all? If there is no more eco-mindfulness in the world and consumerism becomes the main driver of life and living, would that not impact the entire system? What if ultimately trees lose their `treeness’?

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Power to heal and renew

Apr 12, 2010, 12.00am IST
CHRISTOPHER MENDONCA.


The Sacred Tridium of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter has its roots in the celebration of the Passover by the Israelites 12 centuries before Christ. Memorial for the Hebrew means making present in the “now” the event that took place years ago, not merely in the sense of remembering it, but believing that what happened then happens even now, in our very midst with the same intensity with which it first occurred. The ‘symbols’ of yesteryear become the ‘reality’ of today, albeit in a different setting.

Deliverance from slavery, passing over from one form of existence to another, crossing over and making it to the other side against all odds, are all a reminder of the presence of the same power that allows the event to be repeated. For Christians, these days are a celebration of deliverance from enslavement to the ego, passing over from the ‘death of the self’ to the new life of the true Self. The journey to the Promised Land that took 40 years is a symbol of the lifelong resistance we face as we make the journey in our own lives. But Easter is the assurance that we will make it to the other side.


In Hebrew thought and culture the individual and nature are meant to be in harmony in the Original Plan of God. Easter comes to us as God’s gift in the person of Jesus who exercises the fullness of Divine Power by healing at all levels – cosmic, physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. Christians believe that Resurrection of Jesus makes us partakers of that very power. We are called to share this gift with each other to participate actively in this process of renewal and re-creation, first of all by healing ourselves and then making this the starting point of healing all around us.


We do not ourselves heal others. Rather we allow ourselves to become channels of the healing power of God with us and in us, enabling it to be effective at all levels. But it is given to us in freedom. The power of the Risen Lord, real as it is, does not take away our freedom to reject it.


Why are we so often unable to heal our sicknesses? Why is it that new form of diseases surface and hold to ransom large sections of the population even as we have made staggering advances in the field of medical science? Why are we so often incapable of healing broken relationships? Why does peace so often elude us? All our efforts at building a better world, of establishing a society free of violence and war, of living together in peace and justice and love will come to naught if they are not at the same time linked to our own progressive “Passing Over” from the Ego to the True Self.


The celebration of Easter is more than a Christian Festival; the Passover goes beyond the boundaries of Judaism. It is an invitation to every individual to delve deep into his own contemplative tradition and encounter there the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power within us that is the source of healing and renewal. Precisely because of Easter, together with us ‘the whole of creation still retains the hope of being freed like us from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God’.

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Happiness is not everything

Apr 11, 2010, 12.00am IST
SWAMI BRAHMDEV.


The idea of happiness is a kind of ignorance. If your understanding is healthy, then you will never give too much importance to happiness; we do so because of our ignorance. Happiness is not the idea, purpose or aim of life; happiness is a consequence, a fruit.


Happiness is a subject of the senses; it is felt by the senses, it is an idea of the senses; it is information got from the senses. The scope of the senses is limited and the senses are completely unaware of the greatness of life. So if you are thinking for happiness or working for happiness you are just following your senses, you are indulging them. You are just living with your senses.


Understand the game of the senses, and then go beyond them. Discover that portion of life, that part of life that can give us something permanent, the highest knowledge of life, the highest clarity in life.


Nobody enters the path with full clarity, so even if you are ignorant or you lack the aspiration, somehow you will get connected. For instance you have a certain understanding of life and what you want. On the basis of what you know, your highest goal is to find happiness. As you undergo experiences in the course of life, your understanding grows wider and deeper. As your understanding develops you begin to see that happiness is not everything, that there is something beyond, that happiness comes and goes. You begin to think that perhaps satisfaction and being content is more important, no matter the kind of circumstances you are faced with. You could be content if you wished to be so.


Earlier your level of understanding prompted you to say: “How can I be content when I don’t have this, or I don’t have that?” Now your level of understanding has changed, and with that understanding you don’t miss anything, you are fully content. So it is just that in the level of our understanding something happens; if the understanding is high then you will not give too much importance to happiness, or sadness. When you aspire for something higher you will give more importance to your clarity, to your higher understanding, you will live for that; you will not give importance to whether the path is long or not, you will not give importance to the path at all, you will give importance to the target, the target is higher, aspiration is higher.


When you climb a mountain with the aim of reaching the top you have clarity. You know that you have to reach the top. That clarity helps you. The path will be very difficult, and maybe you will not be happy on the way, but when you reach the top that will give you much more than happiness, it will give you contentment. If we are only looking for happiness then we will never be able to climb high, aim high, or aspire for anything that can help us to evolve further.


What we understand by happiness lies on the surface. When you live at a deeper level, you give importance to clarity of consciousness which gives you information on the purpose of your existence; it gives you purpose. Once this is clear, everything will come to you including contentment and balance.

(As told to Sudhamahi Regunathan)

You can write to Swami Brahmdev at aurovalley@gmail.com

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Sublimate service to seva

Apr 18, 2010, 12.00am IST
TNN.


Acts of service are not uniform in the benefits they confer. When service is undertaken by power-hungry people, under compulsion or by imitative urges, it results in more harm than good.

Self-aggrandisement, competition or ostentation are motives that pollute the sacred spiritual practice of service. One who wishes to do spiritual service needs overcome ego, exhibitionism and favouritism.


Before embarking on a service project, ask yourself, is your heart full of selfless love, humility and compassion? In your head do you have an intelligent understanding and knowledge of the problem and its solution? Are your hands eager to offer the healing touch? And can you gladly spare and share time, energy and skill to help others in dire need?

These qualities take root and grow only when the idea of the ‘Reality of Unity’ is implanted in our consciousness. Think of it this way. All living beings are cells in the body of God. Their origin, continued existence, and progress are all in, by and for God. The individual is a unit in this unity. There are no other aliens. When one is ill, all suffer. When one is happy, all are partners of that happiness. Faith in this truth is the fundamental equipment the sevak or volunteer must acquire.


In order to deserve the sacred name Seva, the activity must be freed from all attachment to the individual self and based on firm faith in the Divine resident in every being. Seva has to be considered as worshipping the form that God has assumed to give volunteers the chance of worship.


When a hungry nara or man is served a hearty meal, what is being done is Narayana Seva -- serving the Supreme Lord, for nara is only ‘a form and a name’ projected by maya or human ignorance. Do not allow your service activities to turn into shops which concentrate on window dressing, in order to attract attention and patronage.

Before attempting to advise people who are less fortunate than you are, you must endeavour to advise yourself ; before venturing to reform them, reform yourself. Avoid boasting before them about your superiority; it will hurt them and keep them away. Do not indulge in lectures. Action alone can inspire action. Example alone can instruct. Tall talk is a barren exercise.

An illiterate person need not be an ignorant person. He might be well aware of the ideals propounded by scriptures, saints and sages perhaps through oral tradition.

Today, we are confronted everywhere with statistics parading quantities and reports in glowing terms. Do not bother about adding to the number or achieving a target; value quality, not quantity. Genuine and intensive devoted service offered in a few places is more fruitful than superficial service offered to a large number.

Life cannot continue for long without others serving you, and you serving others. Master-servant, ruler-ruled, guru-disciple, employer-employee, parents-children, all these are bound by mutual service. Every one is a sevak or servant.


Remember that the body, with its senses-mind-brain complex has been gifted to you to be used for helping the helpless. Seva is the highest path of devotion which wins the Grace of God. It promotes mental purity, diminishes egoism and enables one to experience, through sympathetic understanding, the unity of mankind.

November 21, 1986

(Discourse: Sri Sathya Sai Baba)

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Going on a pilgrimage

Apr 9, 2010, 12.00am IST
TNN.


In mystic traditions, particularly in India, life is regarded as a journey. A pilgrimage is merely an external projection of an inward journey. Before you can determine who is a pilgrim, you need to be clear about some aspects of pilgrimage.

A place of pilgrimage is one where a manifestation of divinity appeared for a particular purpose, where a sage performed austerities or meditated for a long period, or where someone got direct experience of God. One or more specific areas within the holy place get marked as a sanctum sanctorum, due to a still palpable divine power, like a vortex of energy. I have personally experienced this vortex in many places, particularly while taking a dip in the Ganga with my Guru at the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar.

A pilgrimage is undertaken with many spiritual goals in mind. It may be an act of acknowledging to oneself one’s failures and misdeeds. You may aspire for freedom from this burden of misdeeds through prayaschitta, an act of atonement and purification. It could be in the form of renouncing a habit, addiction or worldly pleasure after the pilgrimage is complete.

It is not a myth that if a pilgrim is one who fulfils all the requirements, he may be granted the rare darshan of a sage who left the body thousands of years ago, but still dwells there as a light being.

You will feel the energy to the degree your mind is attuned. If you blanket your mind with the elements of the unsettled, the non-sacred, the mundane, and carry your anger and impatience with you, the energy plays hide and seek, and you return without being recharged.

While a pilgrimage is not the highest endeavour, it is far more conducive to self-enquiry and enrichment than a holiday. Rather than attending a lecture on silence, it is better to practise silence. Go on an internal journey rather than an external one.

If done earnestly the right way, it cleanses the mind, unburdens the heart, and you become confident in your capacity to explore your inner world. You then renounce pleasures you are addicted to and come to realise that you have the spiritual strength to live without them.

Begin a pilgrimage with an inner resolve or sankalpa, abandoning comforts, renouncing pleasures, remaining silent and still, practising celibacy, practising restraint in matters of food, accepting whatever the stations in the journey have to offer, controlling speech and all the senses and withdrawing from desires and from memories thereof.

Many spiritual seekers share Kabir’s view: “If taking a dip in a river would grant me liberation then the fish would have been liberated long ago.” Hence the internal journey is far more important than the external one.

A holy place is called tirtha, a point of crossing over. Let a pilgrimage be a point of crossing over, a transition to a higher level of thought, action and existence. Go with the resolve: “After the pilgrimage, I shall be a higher self, purer, brighter, more stilled, more akin to my own interior divinity.”


After the pilgrimage, be not what you were before. Let your life become a journey to your internal sanctum sanctorum. Until that final realisation happens, you will continue to remain a pilgrim. Thereafter, you become a guide to other pilgrims who might follow you, seeking to grasp the vessel of God’s elixir of immortality, the Aquarian fullness, the essence of enlightenment.

(Talk: Swami Veda Bharati)

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Blissful seconds in bungee jumping

Apr 9, 2010, 12.00am IST
DEEPAK RANADE.


The present is continuously being distorted by memories of the past or by projections into the future.


The pristine present moment is continuously adulterated by this distortion. The mind is therefore never still. The thoughts keep flowing relentlessly, almost involuntarily. And thoughts are entirely within the domain of past events or apprehensions of the future.


When a person jumps off the ledge in bungee jumping, the thrill he experiences is largely due to his confining his awareness to the here and now. He does not deliberate about the past or future. Those few seconds belong to the present. That is probably what makes adventure sport so exciting, risks notwithstanding.

The ‘here and now’ all the while gets modified into the ‘then and there’ depending on the programme that is used. This programme is the amalgamation of memories, temperament, and conditioning. The output generated after processing the present by this programme is then categorised as happiness, sadness and the entire gamut of emotions. The present intrinsically has no characteristic. It is devoid of any emotional shade. It is just awareness. Pure being-ness. The mind transforms unbiased cognition to biased perception. All emotions are purely within the ambit of perception. There is nothing absolute about them. The constant struggle that ensues in the mind is the duel between the individual’s perception of what is and how it ought to be.

The natural succession to this line of thinking is whether one can really manipulate the outer world and ensure what ought to be. A very honest answer would be a categorical `no’.


The present moment is wasted in castigating the past and strategising the future. Knowing, deep down, of not having the wherewithal to effect our will, we would realise how insane is our obsession with power to control. It is a common experience that anticipation of happiness is probably more joyful than the actual event and anticipation of pain is more painful than the point of suffering. In both the cases it is the present moment that is pregnant with perception of an event that has yet to happen. And in both cases the perception is in hyperbole. That is why the when the actual event takes place, both the pain and the happiness are lesser than projected.


Meditation is training the mind to be in the here and now. Chanting, and rhythmic breathing are means to this end. Focusing on a particular deity or mantras serve a similar purpose, to overcome the urge to let the mind wander.


The present moment is devoid of any sense of ego. The ego is an apparition that subsists only on the past. The pure present moment when disrobed of the past or future is just a sense of am-ness. This am-ness has no name, no past and no aspirations, rather like what the bungee jumper experiences. Or those moments when one is so absorbed in what one is doing that one loses the sense of identity. Like listening to soulful music or for that matter when a surgeon is operating. We all probably experience these quasi- meditative states off and on but we might not be aware of it. That point of impersonal consciousness is nothing short of meditation. And losing one’s identity, even if for a few moments, is pleasurable. Because at that moment all perceived emotions also vanish as they are of the sense of identity. The realised soul resides in that state voluntarily.

(The writer is a Neurosurgeon.)
Email: deepakranade@ hotmail.com.

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Reiki’s healing energy

Apr 8, 2010, 12.00am IST
Sangeeta Mittal.


No object in world is eternal. We read, we know, we understand, but how many of us believe this simple truth, that nothing and everything that exits in the cosmos are present in space but in different forms? Space, the God-force is one dimension which holds our past, present, and future. Everything is in place.


In the universe there are many galaxies - we are also in one of them, the Milky Way - made up of energy in the form of matter consisting of vibrating atoms, electrons, protons, subatomic particles and then the space between the atoms, which is emptiness. The energy which vibrates and pulsates between the emptiness at different frequencies is the God-force which comes directly from the cosmos to give them different structures.


We may seem like a solid body made up of cells, molecules and atoms. All these are, however, components in emptiness. Space, the emptiness between the atoms is bridged by energy which is flowing all over the body through 72,000 channels and throughout the universe. As blood flows through nerves, energy flows through nadis, channels, and the meridians. Energy is called variously as the God-force, kundalini, shakti or reiki, the vibrational energy.


Intellectually, it is difficult to study empty space, the field of kundalini shakti flowing between the atoms in the body, so to speak. However if we are able to withdraw our five senses from the outer world and train our minds to undertake a different kind of experience, we can journey inside, following the inner radar of the five koshas. The five koshas are annamaya or food sheath, pranamaya or vital sheath, manomaya or mental sheath, vijnanmaya or intellect sheath and anandmaya kosha or bliss sheath.


Anything which we see through our physical eyes or inner eyes begins with a thought; it may be a seed thought put into action. Thoughts are constructed by pure consciousness which exists between the nothingness of space. Why is it difficult to see objects in reality which we construct through our thoughts? Our thoughts are subatomic energy and they turn inward. They look back and keep changing and reconstructing themselves to form new shapes all the time with the perception of our five sense. This way, the subtlest energy in nature manifests what we actually wish. We have to invoke awareness of our own self to know the purity and solidity of that seed thought by reading the map to journey inward towards the self.


An enlightened person undertakes a journey that takes him towards the Self. Through meditation one can raise the vibrations of consciousness. This is followed by outer activity, living in the material physical world. Even 20 minutes of giving Reiki or God-force energy to your self will raise and vibrate your energy level and establish inner silence that may see you through more than 12 hours of activity. To maintain the purity of vibrations don’t allow it to fade; get recharged practicing regularly energy healing the Reiki way.


As you continue through months of following this practice you will overcome the trappings of the external world that threaten to overshadow your pure consciousness. You would then be able to reach the highest state of consciousness that is known as the sat chit ananda. Once you get there, you can truly enjoy the bliss.

(The writer is a Reiki master)

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Taste the sweetness of life

Apr 7, 2010, 08.59am IST
DISCOURSE: SADHGURU.

When you exist here as body or mind, your suffering is inevitable. Your body and mind are always subject to the forces of duality, so circumstantial aspects will rule.


As long as this is so, you being happy or unhappy, peaceful or not, is not in your control – the way you are right now depends on the situations you are in. Meditation means to transcend limitations of physical body and mind so that you exist in a state where body and mind are not deciding the quality of who you are. During meditation you are in touch with the source, the basis of your body and mind. The basis of all creation is what you are referring to as God. Body and mind are something that you gathered from outside. They are not the basis of life, they are only the surface.


The physical reality of existence is only the peel of the fruit. Only as a protective layer for the fruit, the peel has some value; not by itself. You have to feed your body, clothe it, decorate it, and pamper it in so many ways. This seems very important right now. But if that something which is the basis of your body and mind, that which you have never experienced so far, leaves this body, nobody is interested in this body anymore. The fruit is gone. Nobody is interested in the peel alone. Only because the fruit is inside, we value the peel. But right now, you have gotten so deeply involved with the peel that you have forgotten about the fruit. If you are eating the peel of life, how can life be? It has to be bitter. But the problem with the peel is, it has spots of sweetness in it. Right now, your whole life is about searching for these spots of sweetness. These spots of sweetness have come only because of the fruit. If you transcend the peel, if you go beyond the peel and taste the fruit, your life will become completely different. Physical existence is just the peel of life.


Right now, your whole experience of life is limited to the physical existence because you experience life only through your five senses. Sense organs can only experience that which is physical. They cannot experience anything beyond that.


If you want to experience something beyond the physical existence, you need to go beyond the five senses. Right now, you can only talk about God; you cannot experience God. But if you can experience the fruit beyond the peel and access that which is the source of creation, there is a possibility for you to live every moment of your life in the company of the Divine – an intelligence and competence that will make your life magical and blissful. If you do not utilise this possibility, why exist here as a human being? If we have just come here to eat, sleep, reproduce and die one day, we don’t need this kind of intelligence; we don’t need this kind of body. Once you have come here as a human being, you have come with the capability of knowing and experiencing life beyond the physical dimension. That is what meditation means – to know life beyond the limitations of the five senses; to know life beyond the sphere of that which is physical; to know and experience life at the source, not the surface. To live, and to live totally.

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So many roles to play

Apr 7, 2010, 12.00am IST
JAHNAVI SHANDILYA.


Among the fundamental questions we tend to ask ourselves at some point in our lives is: “Who Am I?” Ramana Maharshi asked the seeker to constantly question himself as a way of exploring deeper truths and to come to a better understanding of them.

Who are you? Jiddu Krishnamurti answered thus: “When you call yourself an Indian, a Muslim, a Christian, a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, religion, political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

While discussing what J Krishnamurti had to say on the subject of identities, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at a satsang held recently in Rishikesh, offered the following insight: The process of evolution is moving from somebody to nobody and from nobody to everybody, realising one’s true identity, Brahmn, the all-inclusive and all-pervasive. Masters all along, even after achieving the highest, have chosen to play limited identities well. Rama was called Maryada Purushottam, Krishna was Yogeshwar, and Dwarkadheesh , and Buddha as a bhikshu meticulously followed the sanyas dharma.

An individual cares for his immediate family and as part of society shares love and affection with neighbours. For a master, the family is the whole world. An avatar, a sadhguru, skillfully fulfills individual as well as universal roles, without any conflict. Playing a limited role is in no way in conflict with the universal role. Though Krishna was a Yadava, he also was Devakinandan. Arjuna tells Krishna in Chapter XI: “He Krishna, He Yadava, He Sakha.” Krishna fulfilled the role of a son, a Yadava leader, sakha to Arjuna and guru to Udhava.

A master is unattached to any identity but still presents an expression appropriate to desh, kal and patra or space, time and situation. For example, a Times of India marketing person may be reading every newspaper in the house, but while doing his job promoting his paper, he has to claim Times of India is the best. If he says every paper is the same then will he be doing justice to his job? When Arjuna wanted to let go off his kshatriya identity and live in the forest, it was Krishna who insisted that he has to keep his kshatriya identity.


Remaining universal inside and assuming identities and roles outside relevant to the situation is the skill of a gyani which each one of us has to cultivate. An incarnation or avatar is remembered by the role played. That is also how the ten incarnations of Vishnu, the Dashavatar, have been beautifully portrayed. Janak performs a limited role as a king externally but internally, nurses a thirst for the unlimited, which makes him a grand seeker before Ashtavakra. A disciple like Janak is rare indeed. A guru's job is to bring everybody to play Janak’s role -- skillful in performing their duties and having a yearning for the highest knowledge. A sadhguru is totally detached, established in Advait, universal in being, at the same time his expression is based on desh, kal and patra -- place, time and situation. Universal in being, nischay, and yet effortlessly fulfilling different roles in the world (vyavhara) is the skill of a Master.

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Staying with the question

Apr 22, 2010, 12.00am IST
MARGUERITE THEOPHIL.


While we are always encouraged to go in search of answers, we are not taught the higher-order skill of asking the right kind of questions.

When solving problems, we are more likely to find relevant, wise answers if we learn first to ask “rich and juicy questions” These, we learn, almost always start with ‘what’ or ‘how’ and are crafted around creating a desired outcome, rather than being framed as the kind of ‘why’ questions that are mostly focused on examining what went wrong.

Accepting unquestioningly all that ‘consensus reality’ offers us, we may live relatively safe lives, being fed our answers; never mind whether or not these answers are wholesome, just or humane. So, if the answers teach us that ‘the other’ -- anyone different in terms of religion, culture, community, gender, or whatever - is to be feared, suspected or even hated, we avoid questions like “Am I/are we really that different?” and “When have I/we also thought or acted in a similar way?” and “How can I learn to see beyond my biases?”

These questions are scary to ask, because on the way to the answers, we might need to accept that our previous ‘givens’ were not all they were made out to be, no matter where or whom they came from.


An interesting questioning process is ‘The Work’ of Byron Katie, author of Loving What Is. This is a way to identify and question the thoughts that are the basis of our suffering. Part of this approach is a process of inquiry that includes ‘The Four Questions’, that pull you progressively deeper into your unquestioned assumptions and really make you look closely at your habitual reactions: Is this true? Can you absolutely know that it’s true? How do you react, what happens to you, when you believe that thought? And most interestingly - who would you be without the thought?


On another level, Sam Keen suggests that what shapes our lives are not just the questions we ask, but those we refuse to ask, or never think of asking. The questions we ask determine whether we will be superficial or profound, accepters of the status quo or seekers.


There are lower-order questions, and higher-order questions. Strangely, the lower-order ones give us answers more readily; but we really should be suspicious when our answers reveal how good, right or righteous, or wronged by others we are, and how wrong, misguided, cruel the other one is or other ones are. Typically, we ask: “Why me?”


Higher order questions often give us more churning, greater discomfort, or even a further lot of questions. But staying with them often gives us life-enhancing insights.


Tough questions we grapple with include: What would I no longer be doing if my life were perfect in every respect? How do I become the unique self I am meant to be? How do I contribute to Life? What should I do to reduce the quantity of hate around? What will make me stronger? Which ‘rules’ must I obey; which ones are healthy to disobey? What gives me true joy and peace? What are the first steps I must take to translate understanding into action?


To become a questioner is to make a commitment to search for wisdom rather than certainty. Many of these questions may not give us very clear-cut answers, but that is precisely the point; it’s the act of asking them that works to shift one’s consciousness.

Email: weave@vsnl.net

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How to bond with the best

Apr 13, 2010, 12.00am IST
M P K Kutty.


It does seem that pain and misery don’t fit in this beautiful earth. Then why is it that many of those who set out in life with a heart of gold, take up noble causes, and stand for the good of fellow beings often come to grief?


One source of trouble is human relationships. So if there is any one to be blamed, it is perhaps we, not nature, the earth or God. Conflicts abound within families, among neighbours, colleagues and friends. Even the very best of individuals commit unintended mistakes, breaking up relationships. Living in isolation is no alternative because we are interdependent and need one another.


Why should inter personal relationships pose such a challenge? The root of the trouble lies in human nature. As the Bible puts it succinctly, “What comes out of a man defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts ... ” (Mark 7: 21) These defile the man. These elements colour our reactions to peoples and events. It is not the events or circumstances themselves that matters, but our reactions to them. To recognize this is wisdom indeed.
To rid these evil propensities, we need the love of God and fellow beings to take hold of us. The Spirit of God works within man to produce a love that does not keep a record of wrongs. A love that is unconditional and unfettered.


Ordinary people of faith have a sense of their dependence on the Eternal. They no longer consider themselves as indispensable masters of their own destiny. As the saying goes, the graves are full of indispensable people. That brings in certain humility in one’s conduct and conversation; teaches one to be less selfish and more considerate towards others.


The best formula for good interpersonal relationships is the Golden Rule: ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you!’ This rule articulated in the Bible by Jesus is enshrined in most faiths. If you wish to be loved, appreciated and respected by others, you need to be the same mind towards them. If you hope to be forgiven, it is necessary to forgive those who have wronged you.


A forgiving spirit is essential for the maintenance of relationships because we are by nature imperfect. Good conduct demands that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. Anger and revenge do not promote righteousness and in fact blind us to the reality. ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ makes the whole world blind.


Our conversation, proceeding from an enlightened heart—enlightened by the Spirit of God—will promote love and understanding. Love is the perfect material that bonds humans in good relationships. A contrary spirit will engender prejudices and hatred.


Theologian Cuyler considered how the good Lord moulds and shapes us through circumstances and situations. He penned the ideal prayer that should create the ideal inner environment for good inter-personal relationships. ‘Oh how often our all wise Master put us into a deep pit of trial, to subdue our pride or to tame our passions, or to break our stubborn will. Blessed is he who can look up unto the countenance of Jesus and say: ‘Master, my rebellious self is dead, that thou may live in me and I may live for Thee and Thee alone!’

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Why we are the way we are

Apr 4, 2010, 12.00am IST
SADHGURU.

Whichever way you have ‘become’, you have only created and cultivated a small part of it consciously.

A large part of you is unconscious because most of what you perceive is not in your awareness. Sense perception is like that – everything that goes in through your sense organs gets established in your system to be remembered forever. This is karma. Every impression that the five sense organs take in is stored. This is not against you; this information is useful. If you clean up all this information, you will not know how to handle even the simplest aspects of life.


It is only because the information is coming in such torrents, it is so complex, and most of it goes into you without your consciousness so it has become a problem. How you became the way you are is just a tendency that you developed because of the information you gathered. This tendency is traditionally called vasana. It is like a smell. Whatever is there in maximum quantity is the kind of smell you experience. Because you produce this kind of smell, a certain type of life moves towards you, and you also tend to move in that direction.


Now, you use perfume to cover the smell. In the first meeting, people may get deceived. The moment they notice the stink, they are going to run away. Is that the way to live?


So it doesn’t matter what impressions you have gathered, what you make of it is in your hands. An unpleasant experience is carried by most like a badge, always talking about it. “This happened; somebody did this to me, that’s why i’m like this.” They try to cover all their unpleasantness with this one badge.

One basic symbolism in yoga and Indian spirituality has always been a lotus. This is essentially because a lotus grows best wherever there is dirt. Either you can resist the dirt; you can become the dirt, or transform it into a wonderful blossom. It’s your choice.


If unpleasant things have happened to you, it is all the more important that you turn wiser and more beautiful as quick as possible, because you know the pain of unpleasantness. If unpleasant things have happened, all you have to do is see how such things do not happen again to you or to those around you. Whatever you are right now is your own creation, perhaps an unconscious one. Unconscious processing of your impressions has landed you where you are now. If you consciously process the impressions, you could turn them into something else.


To drop your vasanas, and get released from these tendencies is an endless work because in the process you may end up creating more karma. So, instead of trying to erase the smell, you need to distance yourself from the source.
Whatever the nature of karma, the recording mechanisms are only two – your body and mind. If you create little space between you and your physical body and mental structure, then whatever the karma, or vasanas, they have no impact on you. Then, they just die.
The choice is yours – you could be a victim, a spectator, or the master of your life.

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Overcome ego, be happy

Apr 10, 2010, 12.00am IST
SATYA NARAYAN.


Who doesn’t wish for happiness? Can money buy happiness? Do great achievements bring true happiness? Riches, success and achievements may bring name, fame and pride, but they do not always bring happiness.

If lack of money and success creates sorrow and suffering, their possession does not give happiness either. The question then is how can you be peaceful and happy, irrespective of whether you are a success or failure in life?

Krishna says in the Bhagvad Gita: “There is neither intellect nor bhavna (feeling for God) for the ayukta or the one who is not united, and to one devoid of bhavna , there is no peace. To the one without peace, how can there be happiness?” Krishna says, clearly, that unless a person is tuned into God he cannot have peace and without peace, he cannot be happy. Krishna also says that an un-united person does not have intellect.

So if you want happiness, unite with God. For this, you don’t have to abandon the pursuit of riches, success and achievements. God is self-knowledge and wisdom of sameness towards all beings because all are God. An egocentric person remains alienated from wisdom that is God. If you are free from ego, you look at all beings as God and so are united to the wisdom that is God. You will be free of sorrow and will attain peace and happiness.


Krishna says that we do not have right to the fruits of action and, therefore, we should perform actions, leaving the fruits to God. How can you avoid worrying about the fruit while performing actions? When a person regards the fruits of action (success or failure) as ‘mine’ and performs focused on the object, he is automatically worrying about the fruit.
Moreover, in doing so, he fails to abide the law of God, which says that one does not have right to the fruits. What you have to really do is to steady your intellect with the thought that the fruits of actions are of God. And when the fruit accrue in the form of success or failure, joy or sorrow, you have to mentally renounce the fruit to God. Since you do not contemplate the objects, you will not be attached to them. You will break the chain that starts with attachment and gives rise to desire, anger, delusion, confusion of memory, loss of intellect and death. Your intellect will become steady.
Krishna calls the wisdom of steadying your intellect by renouncing the fruits of action to God as Buddhi-yog or discipline of intellect. In this state you can be freed from constant births in different bodies. If you don’t, you are bound by actions. You lose your intellect due to attachment, desire and anger and perish, only to take another birth in a new body.


To steady our intellect we have to bring change in our thoughts. We have to remain engaged in usual actions and enjoyments as earlier but with a steady intellect fixed on the thought that all fruits of action are of God. This will free us from desire and ego, and gain eternal peace and happiness.


The same wisdom that will give peace and happiness to us will also give us Self-realisation and make us immortal. It will lead our world to a new age where we will live in peace, happiness and oneness, realising that we are in union with God.

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Winning hearts and minds

Apr 12, 2010, 12.00am IST
Maulana Wahiddudin Khan.

Some people have inherent special qualities that enable them to master all situations. Such individuals can, when they come to a gathering, win the hearts and minds of people simply by making an appearance there. It is said of them: “They came, they saw, they conquered.”


This kind of ability to win love is not the monopoly of extraordinary people. Any ordinary person also can win the hearts and minds of people, provided he knows the law of nature and can avail of it by the power known as the power of spirituality.


According to the Creation Plan of God, all human beings have two different qualities: ego and conscience. The ego symbolises arrogance, and the conscience, modesty. For instance, there could be a difference of opinion between two individuals, A and B. A might enter into a heated exchange, refusing to give B due respect and honour. This kind of behaviour is bound to provoke B, who might try to teach A a lesson. A psychologist offers this analysis: “When one’s ego is touched, it turns into super ego and the result is breakdown.”


In this case A presented a challenge to B and B’s ego gained the upper hand due to arrogance. On the other hand, if, instead of getting provoked and acting out of ego, had B had opted for a compromise, or if A had restrained himself from provoking B in the first place, there would be no conflict.


In all likelihood, greater understanding would enable better relations between A and B; they would no longer be rivals bent on outdoing the other. There is scope for friendship now where earlier, there was only ill feeling. When one’s conscience is touched, it turns into super conscience and the result is complete surrender.


This formula is within our reach, and can be used quite successfully. However there are certain risks involved.


There is every possibility that in a sensitive situation where the ego is involved, the other person becomes even more arrogant. He will react more aggressively. He will be more dangerous than before. But that is only if you allow the ego to become your master. The ego is a bad master but a good servant. Fear of a situation arising in which one is completely directed by the ego is unfounded, because when the ego gains predominance it is because of ignorance of the power of nature, or more precisely, the power of spirituality. So all one needs to do is to try and be less ignorant; to learn how to think positive and keep one’s ego under control.

According to nature if you challenge someone’s ego, your success is doubtful but when you challenge someone’s conscience, then your success is guaranteed by nature.
People generally know the power of fighting but a wise man will tell you that the power of spirituality is greater than the power of either ego or conscience. At the time of a controversy, if you choose to fight, you will need arms but when you opt for the spiritual method, you don’t need any arms. The power of positive behaviour can triumph over the power of negativity, while the power of negativity cannot win anything -- it can only lead to destruction.

The choice is ours: To opt for positive, peaceful methods to create better understanding and oneness, thereby contributing to universal togetherness with compassion and surrender or to take a combative stand, giving the ego a free hand, causing unhappiness all around.

www.cpsglobal.org

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Quantity and quality of time

Apr 1, 2010, 12.00am IST
MARGUERITE THEOPHIL.


In English we have only one word for time, but the ancient Greeks used two distinct words for this concept: ‘chronos’ and ‘kairos’. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, time as before and after, the latter signifies a time in-between, or a moment of undetermined period of time in which something special happens.

We understand chronos as quantitative; a deliberate march from one thing to the next. Time in this sense is dimensional, measurable; it can be ‘‘accounted for’’. Kairos, less driven – though it may be purposeful in its own way – is significant rather than dimensional, and so it is qualitative. In chronos-time you might ask: ‘‘What time is it?’’ but in kairos-time you ask: ‘‘What is time for?’’


Chronos, the time of clock and calendar, is associated with words like early, late, on time, right away. So it is no surprise that Chronos was portrayed as a minor god, gaunt and ravenous, wild-eyed with hunger.


While measurement is one of the distinguishing characteristics of chronos, a key reason that kairos-time cannot be measured is because it is always a ‘now’. How can one measure ‘now’, or count the ‘nows’ in a lifetime or even a day? Kairos is time as a gift, time we often do not recognise while we are experiencing it, but only afterwards.

Kairos was therefore portrayed as the god of the fleeting moment. Such a precious moment must be grasped when it presents itself – and so the representation of this ‘god’ had a tuft of hair on the forehead for one to do just this, otherwise the moment is gone and cannot be grasped, and this is shown graphically by the back of head being bald!

In the imagery of archery, kairos refers to an imaginary narrow aperture through which the archer’s arrow must pass. In the art of weaving it relates to the ‘critical time’, when the weaver must draw the yarn through a gap that momentarily opens in the warp. So one might understand kairos to refer to a brief instant when an opening appears which must be availed of.

In certain religious circles, kairos is considered “God’s time”, involving a period of challenge, of disruption, where old rules, methods, traditions, habits, ways of thinking and doing business do not seem to work any more. In such cases, a chronos attitude would immediately suggest we ‘do more’ or ‘work harder’. A kairos approach, on the other hand, requires from us an attuning to mystery, to resonance, to inspiration; it involves a period of reflection, of surrender or letting go.


It is not that we need to choose one over the other, but that we need to become aware of and address the imbalance in our lives, where these days, we are more and more driven to favour Chronos. Purely chronos-time activities usually leave us exhausted, and kairos-time pursuits can bring in happiness and peace.

Madeline L’Engle, who wrote that childhood favorite A Wrinkle In Time, tells us that the saint in contemplation, lost to self in the mind of God is in kairos, as is the artist at work or the child at play, “totally thrown outside herself in the game ... ” In kairos we become what we are called to be as human beings – co-creating with God, touching on the wonder of creation.

While Chronos admittedly offers the promise of satisfaction after accomplishment, and we do need that in our lives, Kairos fulfils us when we do what we love, what is meaningful – and we need that even more.

weave@vsnl.net

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Special week of nourishment

Mar 31, 2010, 12.00am IST
SUMIT DHANRAJ.

A month ago, with Spring in the air, Christians began the Lenten Season in spiritual earnest.

This was a 40-day period of spiritual preparation for Easter that typically includes fasting, penance and prayer. Like every year the season of Lent began with Ash Wednesday, which this year was on February 17. It will end with Holy Saturday, that is, a day after Good Friday this week.

Holy Week, the week before Easter Sunday starts with Palm Sunday. It recalls Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem one week before His crucifixion. Holy Monday commemorates Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, when he dealt with moneychangers and other commercial agents who had tables there. Some believe that this triggered his arrest and subsequent crucifixion.


Holy Tuesday recalls Jesus’ description to his disciples on the Mount of Olives of the destruction of Jerusalem. Holy Wednesday, once called Spy Wednesday, recalls Judas’ decision to betray Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, Jesus agony in the garden and his arrest. “Maundy” is derived from the Latin “mandatum” (commandment of God in John 13:34-35), “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” For centuries, people in authority have washed the feet of their followers on this day, as a sign of loving remembrance of Jesus.


Good Friday recalls Jesus’ death on the cross. Some claim that `good’ is a corruption of the word `God’ and that early Christians called this day “God’s Friday.” `God’ morphed into `good’ just as “God be with you” has become “goodbye.” Others claim that “good” refers to the blessings of humanity that Christians believe arose as a result of Jesus’ execution. A fourth-century church manual, the Apostolic Constitutions, called Good Friday a ‘day of mourning, not a day of festive Joy.’ Ambrose, the fourth-century archbishop who befriended the notorious sinner Augustine of Hippo before his conversion, called it the ‘day of bitterness on which we fast’.”

Holy Saturday (on Easter Eve) is the final day of Holy Week and of Lent. On Easter Sunday Christians commemorate Jesus’ resurrection. In the early church, converts were baptised into church membership on this day after a lengthy period of instruction. This tradition continues today in some churches.

The Holy Week emphasises specially on the lessons for all during this time of spiritual nourishment, which stresses more on the attitude with which Lenten exercises must be observed rather than strict adherence to details. For Jesus knew that there is a human tendency to make a show of one’s piety and good deeds.

Therefore, during this week the call for every follower of Jesus is to observe faithfully the statutes and teachings of the Church without making spiritual exercises a matter of public show. Instead of acting as hypocrites, with a sad countenance, the time is to genuinely repent and ask pardon for one’s shortcomings with an open gesture of charitable deeds.


Christians believe that spiritual nourishment during the Holy Week will help them achieve the gifts of new life in the days to come with resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

The writer is a missionary of the Society of the Divine Word.

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Twilight of the Gods

Mar 31, 2010, 12.00am IST
Henryk Skolimowski.


German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, at the end of the 19th century, announced the twilight of the gods. Finally, he said: “God is dead,” referring to the principal god of Abrahamic religions. From this time on, the Christian religion has been in a state of permanent crisis.


Around the same time, the Hindu religion, supported by a cast of 33,000 gods and the living presence of Swami Vivekananda, was flourishing. The Indian subcontinent was then under British occupation.


Then India gained her liberation and freedom. However, 60 years later, the quest for material satisfaction remains paramount. But the feeling of inner emptiness is acute. Many younger people are now looking for liberation in a new form of spirituality that is individual and free of religious constraints.


Are the thousands of gods who have been helping Hindu people, no longer willing to help? Or are they unable to help? Might it not be the case, per chance, that these gods are no longer relevant?


After having been around for thousands of years, maybe the gods have gently retired, unable to understand the world run by computers. Perhaps gadgets have replaced the gods swiftly and adroitly—and we are rather embarrassed to admit it.


One way or another, we are in an altogether new situation, in which traditional religions—East and West—appear to be worn out, shabby and irrelevant. Hindu people, for instance, are experiencing the “twilight of gods” just now. Perhaps Nietzsche was right, after all. He saw the coming crisis of religions much sooner than most of us did. The Hindu religion was quite oblivious of this coming crisis. It was too intoxicated with its own perfume to be able to pay any attention to the mad prophet philosopher from Germany.


But now the Hindu people are exposed to another kind of perfume, or shall we say they are exposed to the noxious fumes of Western progress, accompanied by an increasing craziness of their individual lives. The old world charm of gods no longer holds or helps. The new gods are Mechanos and Electronos combined. Yes, there is another part of the unholy trinity: Mammon.


Now you have an answer as to why the old religions have been waning and sliding. Perhaps they have been doing so for some centuries. But nobody wanted to notice it. ‘Who, us, declining? Never! We are the oldest religion in the world!’ Such has been the unspoken response to any criticism of traditional Hindu religion.


But everything evolves and changes; disintegrates and renews itself—sometimes in quite radical forms. You have to look at the situation from high above, from the position of the Ultimate Light. If you take this perspective, then you can see that the period of patriarchy is coming to an end; and with it the period of patriarchal religions; and with it the reign of Brahmins and priests.
We are at the dawn of a new era of Light. It is precisely this new liberation, unfettered and unbound by traditional religion, that is sought after by those who opt for open spirituality instead of a closed religion. You have to be strong to do that. To follow directions is easy. To be your own master and to follow your own Light is difficult. But you are not alone. The Big Light is with you. Identify with the Light, which predates all religions, and you will see that the New Light will prevail ... because it must.

(The writer is author of ‘Let There Be Light’)

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Here today, gone tomorrow

Apr 28, 2010, 12.00am IST
SHAH RUKH KIRMANI.


Nothing in life is as certain as death. Everything living is bound to die one day. We appear on the world scene only to disappear after a short span of time. This is the cycle of terrestrial life.

Finally a time will come when even the earth would cease to exist. Indeed, nothing physical can escape the march of time and remain fixed in its place without decay, death or transformation. This is settled by Nature.

The transient and ephemeral nature of life is a universally known existential reality. Yet we are hardly bothered about it, and we continue to live as though we are here forever. We try to ‘make hay while the sun shines.’

We spend our lives as we please. The world is all the time with us. We tend to give free rein to desires and ambitions so much so that they sometimes extend out even beyond the confines of death encircling us. Plans and programmes are laid out years in advance when no one is sure of what is going to happen tomorrow. We construct huge buildings and palatial homes that outlive us by many, many years.


While we are running after everything temporal and transient, it is ironical that we should be oblivious of what is most certain and which is going to terminate all our activities and connections with things we have been in love with. A life without a vision of mortality is incomplete and flawed because it could create a lot of remorse.

The way we hanker after life is the central weakness of our life. It is because of this that we are so afraid of death, of what is predestined and so inevitable. It keeps us always restless. It prevents us not only from acting decisively during critical moments but also from enjoying the pleasure and excitement of undertaking bold adventures in life. It is the root cause of many of our setbacks due to ego, greed, pride, hatred, dishonesty, ostentatious living as against simple living. All these things cause problems and misunderstandings. They tie us down to the earthly plane; it does not allow our imagination to soar high above to catch a glimpse of sublime truths and beauty at higher planes. It is, therefore, a major of obstacle in the way of great artistic creations. It is because we have staked every thing on life that we are so incapable of living.

If we believe in the universal truths advocated by most religions, a belief that starts with self-realisation, death is not an end but the beginning of a new life. It is rather a point of transformation. The world we enter upon death is different with an altogether different set of requirements and standards. It is eternal and exists in both space and time. It is not discernible to us as the world we now live in was nowhere in sight when we were in our mother’s womb, protected and secure. What are the norms and requirements by which the dead are going to be judged? This is a question we ask ourselves time and again. We must find out the answers and transform our lives in the light of their revelations, if we are not to jeopardise our chances in the life hereafter.

The wise man, as the prophets say, is the one who remembers death and keeps himself in a state of preparedness to face this eventuality. Death might then be an occasion for rejoicing rather than one of sorrow and repentance.

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Nirvana on the golf course

Apr 15, 2010, 12.00am IST
DILIP NADKARNI.


When a golfer is in the Zone, irrelevant thoughts just disappear. The desired result just 'happens' rather than made to happen... And that can be described as nirvana.

I was standing on a cliff with the Atlantic on my left, a deep valley in front of me and the thick woods to my right. I was on the Tee box of the signature par 3, 15th hole at the Vale do Lobo ocean golf course in Algarve, Portugal. The putting green was a little over 200 yards ahead and one had to hit a long straight shot over the valley, avoiding the water and the woods. I teed up the ball, breathed in the sea-laden breeze and shifted my focus towards the target. I took a swing.

What happened next, happens once in a while to golfers of my level. However, when it happens, it can be described as nirvana. The ball took flight, carried all the hazards and landed on the putting surface. The pleasurable sensation of hitting the sweet spot, the melodious clunk and the ball trajectory had consumed me and did not realise that my buddies were clapping. Where was I? I was in the ‘Zone’, in the Tao, in the flow of golf, completely lost in the moment.


The zone continued for the next few holes. I was at peace with myself. The shots were happening through me rather than by me. My opponent’s banter and ribbing did not bother me. There was no pressure, no expectations, just awareness of pure bliss. What I did on the other holes, please don’t ask. I had some atrocious shots, some forgettable shots and a few good ones, but the zone had happened on the 15th hole.

Players like Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus are known to have played several rounds in the zone, rewriting history. When a golfer is in the Zone, irrelevant thoughts just disappear. The desired result just ‘happens’ rather than made to happen. The mind and body work harmoniously to create a swing free from tensions and distractions. Some golfers say they experience a sense of euphoria, others say they are totally calm and in control when zoned in. There is ease and effortlessness in swing. Moments like these make the game of golf attractive. The bad shots are forgotten and the memory of the zone moment brings you back to the course.

Apart from the zone, golf can be made meditative in many more ways. Walking with awareness on green can be an enriching experience. Most golf courses provide beautiful sights with manicured grass, landscaped fairways and strategically placed water bodies. Birds, butterflies, flowers, and trees add to the visual delight. Audio pleasures include the wind whistling between the trees or the plop of the opponent’s ball in water!

Meditation and golf are interlinked. Just as golf is recognised as a form of meditation, several meditation techniques help the golfer tremendously, by slowing down thoughts and facilitating an easy, smooth swing.


For me golf personifies Calm Sutra even before I have reached the first tee. I tee off in my mind, as I am packing my bag and making my way to the course. Yes in the personal theatre of my mind, creative visualisation of the forthcoming golf shots is a great preliminary ritual I relish. The pleasure of golf continues even after the round on the 19th hole in the clubhouse.

From the Calm Sutra, the Art of Relaxation , published by Times Group Books .

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A caller ID option for your thoughts

Apr 19, 2010, 12.00am IST
MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI.


The tide is shifting. Society is no longer about unity; it’s about individual isolation. The mantra seems to be: “Everything only for me.” As this selfish attitude becomes more firmly established, we find that our happiness is slowly slipping through our fingers.


Unity is the law of Nature. Without give-and-take there is no life. When the sun shines, rivers flow, birds sing, and trees bear fruit, they do so without expecting our acknowledgement or praise. Everything in Nature gives as much as possible. Our tendency to swim against the natural flow fills our minds with tension, sorrow and fear. Hence there is the rich-poor divide and so much conflict and suffering.


Earlier, there was no ownership of land. The indigenous American people and others like them in other parts of the world believed: “The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth.” They didn’t understand how land could be measured, divided, bought and sold. Then how has it come to be that we are now willing to kill each other over even the smallest of property disputes? How come children don’t flinch when they take their parents to court over inheritance matters?


Scientists and governments are promoting cutting edge research that would enable greater exploration of the universe – we want to be able to travel to Mars and beyond. We’ve succeeded in reaching the Moon, and many such efforts have led to exciting discoveries in the universe. Regardless, just as we are reaching for the stars, we should also strive to bring ourselves back to Earth.


We rush about, with packed schedules and back-to-back appointments. There’s so much to do and so little time. But if we lose our peace of mind and happiness as a result, what is the point? It is not enough to be on the fast track; we also have to go in the proper direction. Otherwise the whole trip is a waste of time. Because of our obsession with speed, many precious opportunities are passing us by without our being aware of it.

There are two important days in our life. The first is the day we are born. The second is the day we realise why we are born. But for many people, this second day never comes. They live mechanically from the day they are born until the day they die. We will only be able to appreciate the beauty and magnitude of life when we realise its true purpose.

Worrying has become second nature to us. Once a thought enters our mind, it quickly establishes a dictatorship. Soon, we lose our freedom to think in a discriminating manner with the result the mind becomes a slave. When a virus infects a computer, we are unable to access information in our folders or files. Such is the condition of our mind, infected with unwanted thoughts.

To enjoy freedom, to be more aware, we need to liberate the mind from needless thoughts. Most of our phones have a caller identity option. With this, we can see either the name or the number of the person calling us. We can accept the calls we want and ignore the calls we don’t. Similarly, when we develop awareness, we gain the ability to accept and nourish healthy thoughts and reject bad ones. Through awareness, we can even develop the ability to witness all the various functions of our mind and, ultimately, realise our true Self.

(Amma is currently touring north India. For details visit: www.amritapuri.org .)

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